I am a current junior, and the first semester is about over. I currently have a 3.88 GPA, and my grades this semester are 5 A’s and one B+. I’m freaking out thinking that my GPA is about to go down, and I havent found a reliable way to calculate it. Does it seem like it would go down? Does a B hurt that bad? Mind you this is like my 5th B of highschool as well. If it drops my GPA substantially, will this hurt my chances of attending a top 30 school, or will it not matter because you only need to pass a certain benchmark?
5th semester of having a B? A couple B’s will not hurt you.
I got into Penn with a 3.93 GPA (I got a B in one semester of AP Euro, one semester of honors physics, and both semesters of AP Calculus). A classmate of mine got into MIT with a 3.89. Of the 18 kids in my school who got perfect GPAs, half of them went to UW-Madison and most of the rest went to a good but not classically “elite” school.
Top 30 schools get a lot of qualified applicants every year, and while they want to see that you’re intelligent (test scores) and work hard (good grades), ultimately they want something that makes you stand out. It’s hard to devote yourself to something about which you’re passionate and keep a 4.0; those kids at my school uniformly had 0-1 extracurriculars.
As long as those B’s are in honors and AP classes, your test scores are solidly above average, and you can show passion and skill for a particular field, you won’t be ruled out.